Local businesses are having a hard time expanding, because of a lack of skilled workers. This is a common issue in northern Ontario, one that the Timmins Chamber of Commerce is now bringing awareness too. 63 per cent of businesses in Ontario say they don’t have the talent they need to scale-up.
President of the Timmins Chamber Kurt Bigeau says they hear time and time again that this problem is hampering entrepreneurs’ ability to explore and consider new opportunities for growth. He says says insufficient access to skilled workers is an ongoing issue for the business community.
The Chamber is pushing the government to work with the business community to create conditions for growth and expansion. Some of those recommendations, which are being supported by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, are:
- Realign public programs and incentives to focus supports on high-growth firms
- Encourage greater international trade activity by linking more business support programs to trade
- Improve access to public and private anchor customers by leveraging procurement to strategically invest in growing businesses
- Enable accurate measurement and monitoring of the scale up challenge by ensuring collaboration between Statistics Canada and industry groups to collect and publicize relevant data